“Great, I’m sure you’re just as tired of them as I am. Look, I found all the amber pieces we currently have in stock. I’ll keep them under the counter until next time your girlfriend is in.”
“Girlfriend?” his head jerked back and then a wide smile spread across his face. “Amber’s my sister.”
I frowned at this, “Seriously? You look nothing like each other.”
“You don’t believe me?” his eyes twinkled and he straightened up and pulled his phone from his pocket. I rolled my eyes, this was the oldest line in the book. “Here,” he said, holding out a scan of an old photo. The colours were washed out, the corners dog-eared but sure enough, there was a much shorter and skinnier teenage Gabe with a waif-thin Amber, sans tattoos.
“Oh.”
“You think I’d be doing this . . .,” he gestured to me then him, “if I had a girlfriend?”
“What is ‘this?’” I asked, imitating his gesture.
“Ash, c’mon.”
“What?”
“Seriously? You don’t feel this? Babe, the Snow White get-up was dead sexy. All sweet and innocent princess that was brazen enough to stick her hands down my pants and grab what she wanted, no apologies. Then something happened to put her back into her cage. Not sure if it’s the tenancy deal or you just haven’t had your morning coffee yet, but I can’t help wondering what it would take to get her to come out to play again.” He leant over the counter, broaching the distance between us with ease. “Because I think she’s just begging to play my favourite game, teasing you until you’re begging me to come, spreading you out naked on my bed, thighs wrapped around my head as I shove my fingers inside you, circling your clit with the tip of my—”
“Stop,” I gasped. As he spoke the words, I felt myself transported from the shop to another place, where I experienced just what he said. As his gaze slid over parts of my body, I felt just how taut, wet and damned ready I was to do just as he described. I forced myself to meet his gaze; his smile had softened to something darker and more heated. He was a picture of reined-back power; his stance as he leaned against the counter deceptively casual. Only I could see the tension in his body as he held himself back.
I have to admit, I sometimes made fun of Tess’s preoccupation with romance novels. I’d read plenty when I was growing up but cast them off when real boys became more interesting than the steel-jawed sex demons on the page. But there was something dizzying about seeing and talking to someone who belonged on their pages standing in my shop, offering to lick my clit. The cold hard realist in me was freaked. This had to be the spell. He’d seemed a little flirty before this, but nothing more than the usual polite, complimentary behaviour most people engaged in.
He stood up with a sigh, “That little brain of yours is ticking over right now, isn’t it? Look, I’m a pretty straightforward kind of guy. I don’t see the point of beating around the bush, so to speak. I’ve got some things to do, get the last of these bookshelves out. I’ll come back here at the end of the day and you can tell me yea or nay.” His fingers went to the hem of his t-shirt, my eyes widening as he pulled it from his body, slowly revealing every golden brown muscle before tucking it into the back of his jeans. “And Ash, I’m really hoping you say yes.”
12
It took quite some time for me to move from my spot and close my damn mouth. I'd had an array of Tess's book boyfriends hit me up over the months since the curse started, but knights spouting 'prithees and thous', or vampires who lit up like glitter balls had never been real tempting. Did I want to? If I was really honest, and there was no one else around to notice, I would have locked up the shop and dragged him into the backroom to have my way with him. It wasn't ever going to be more than sex, but there wasn't anything wrong than that.
But how would people react? I was a woman and as much as I hated it, the consequences of sleeping with someone always immediately sprung to mind. Tess would think it hysterically funny and probably start quizzing me on what I wanted to bang next, so she could alter her to be read list. Jez was pretty open about what she thought about lovers who conveniently disappeared at 4 a.m. But the guys, I really, really needed them to take this lease, especially as they'd started painting a mural on the wall.
I tried to push the offer from my mind by getting the books into the new storeroom library, both Tess and Jez remarking on my energy. Who knew that sexual temptation was better than a coffee? By the time late afternoon arrived, we’d gotten the books cleared away and had almost finished the stocktake when I heard the bells go on the door. "Jez, can you go in the back for a moment?" I asked, coming into the front. Sure enough, Gabe stood just inside the shop, shirt off, sweat beading on his skin, the sun casting kind of a halo around his head.
“Yep,” Jez said, looking from him to me. She swooped in close and whispered in my ear, "I want allll the deets tomorrow."
Without looking away from his eyes, I heard her move, then shut the storeroom door behind me. I took one step, then two towards him as he watched my every move. Somehow having no one else to watch what was going on allowed something I had struggled to keep a lid on all day slip free. I felt the heat–the want–inside me flare up. I looked him over like he was a side of meat and decided I very much wanted, no needed, to take a bite. When I was close enough to almost touch, I hissed, "What do you want to do to me?"
His eyes glittered at that, and I watched that golden throat swallow. He searched my face, my body as if looking for signs. In some ways this was a test, if he really was a manifestation of a romance novel, he'd talk only about my pleasure. It seemed wish fulfilment was a strong theme in romance, where super gorgeous guys were concerned only with servicing their partner, even willing to forgo their own pleasure to make sure the female lead had multiple earth-shattering orgasms. It kinda jerked me out of the story when I read them, no one was that selfless, but I get what they were trying to do. I'd had plenty of lovers who made sure I had a good time, but always, at the back of my mind when a guy was about to go down on me or do something to please me, was a feeling that I couldn't quite relax. I couldn't let it go on too long, or they'd get a sore jaw or hand or whatever, that I couldn't just indulge.
"I want to taste you," he said in a low rasp. "I want to strip you, lay you on your bed and lick every inch of you. I want to spread those legs as far as they can go and look at your glistening wet pussy. I want to eat you, shove my fingers into you until you come so many times you lose count."
I shouldn't do this. I was probably souring the business relationship that would keep us afloat. My mother would be completely appalled, but I realised this was my opportunity to have my wishes fulfilled, as many times as I liked. Refractory time was pretty awesome in romance novels. I smiled and placed a hand on his hot skin. "You want to ride in my car or follow on your bike?"
13
He followed me to my place. I stepped out into the quiet car park, it was early
and most people weren't home from work yet, when his bike roared up to be parked beside me. He had his leg over the bike in one second, his arms around me in the next. His mouth crushed into mine, hard lips nipping and his tongue flickering out to tangle with mine. I groaned as his hands grabbed at my butt, pulling me hard against the unbending bulge there. "I've been wanting to do that since the moment you put your hand under my shirt," he said between pants, resting his forehead against mine. "Tell me you're on the ground floor."
"First, but it’s only one flight of stairs."
We raced up to my apartment and were inside in what felt like a few moments. His hands were on me as soon as the door closed, digging into my hair, running along my back, pulling me hard against him. "Jesus," he hissed, "I can't get enough of you. Take these damned clothes off."
I pulled back and did something I never normally did. "You first," I said. This is my fantasy, I realised. I didn't have to worry about being too pushy, whether he liked my lumps and bumps or not. He was designed to be on board with everything I was, so I was going to enjoy the few hours I had left of that.
"I've been thinking about this body," Gabe said with a purr. "What's under this t-shirt, what these tits look like, how hard your nipples will get when I suck them, ever since we first met. My dick has been aching the whole damned time. I was about ready to chuck the tenancy agreement and waltz out of there, with you under my arm, so if you think I'm gonna wait . . ."
"If you take your clothes off, let me see, touch you a little, I'll fuck you in every way I find pleasurable, as many times as you can get it up until 4 a.m."